Tuesday, January 12, 2016

#TipTuesday: Sharing My Productivity Tracker

I'm a huge fan of holding myself accountable for how I use my time, so for over a year and a half now I've used a custom tracker to keep track of a number of things, including how much art and writing I do on a given day, as well as how many steps I've taken and how well I've eaten and what sorts of things I spent my time on.

I try to make sure that these things are very easy for me to input to encourage me to keep up with the tracker and meet weekly goals, and I thought it might help to share the same customizable tracker with you!

Here is a Google Sheets document which includes a blank version of the tracker I use to help increase my productivity! You're welcome to save a copy & use it for yourself. :) -->http://bit.ly/1J2qCo9

More about the Tracker and How to Use It

Example of a blank weekly log for art and writing

Included in the tabs:

Your Log

Your Historical Info

Log Example

Historical Example

Tracker for Artists

Tracker for Writers Without Part Numbers

Tracker for Writers With Part Numbers

Tracker for Artists and Writers

The tabs can be found along the bottom of the sheet:

I've found that weekly goals work better for me than daily goals, so that's how I set this up. I feel that part of striking a good balance in your life means holding yourself accountable for how you're spending your time on the whole, while also respecting that some days you simply need to take some R&R and watch Netflix, see friends, or what have you.

As far as this tracker is concerned, you simply need to set weekly goals for yourself in the "Hours to Weekly Goal" row, and as you make progress, they will turn green when you hit the threshold you set. As you can see in the example below, I've already met my weekly goal for hours spent writing and doing art for this week (yay!), but I haven't met my blogging or words written goals just yet.

You can track how much you want to exercise, do art, write, how healthy you're eating: you name it! And you can take notes on how you spent each day in the "Notes" section.

You can even set goals months out in the "Next Milestone" section so you're mindful of approaching milestones.

Example of a Weekly Log. This is mine from this week! I still have a few days left to meet my next milestone.

There are quite a few formulas included in it to help ease everything along, including a Food grade tracker to help track how you're eating in a given week. I generally envision "C' as making eating choices that will maintain my weight, whereas regular, healthier meals that would encourage me to lose weight could fall into the "B" or "A" category depending on a number of factors including their caloric intake and nutritional value. Keep in mind that you can track as much or as little as you like, so feel free to customize your tracker for what works best for you!

Once the week is over, you can move that week's data into the "Historical" tab, and then start fresh. You can change the date in the top-most row, and everything below will automatically populate as well. Feel free to change up your hours to weekly goals so that you can set realistic goals for yourself.

Example of a Historical Tab

I hope you enjoy checking out my productivity tracker and might consider using it for yourself. Let me know if you have any questions on how to customize your own tracker, or if there is a new template you would like to see me offer!